HP takes top PC spot from Dell

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given all of the coverage surrounding hp's embarrassing internal investigation gone wrong, the company needed some good news. luckily for the company, gartner and idc were happy to oblige. according to both research companies, hp was able to overtake dell as number one in pc shipments worldwide.

gartner reported that hp had 16.3% marketshare compared to dell's 16.1% for the third quarter of this year. helping it to take the top spot was hp's year over year growth of 15.4% compared to dell's growth of 3.6%. idc, meanwhile, had shipments somewhat closer. the research company reported both companies with marketshare of 17.2%, showing hp edging out dell by 28,000 units. idc also agreed that hp saw incredible year over year growth: 15.1% compared to dell's 3.6%.

overall, worldwide pc shipments saw 7.9% growth for the third quarter. this is down 9.8% from the previous quarter. this is also quite a change compared to past years of double-digit growth.

brian's opinion
whatever animal sacrifices and prayers hp's ceo performed for a change in the tide worked. hp annihilated dell in year over year growth. that has to be extremely embarrassing for dell, since it means the company opened the door for hp to overtake it.

dell needs to do some serious soul searching to discover what has gone wrong. not to have annual growth of even 4% when your closest competitor is seeing growth of more than 15% has to be a red flag. we'll have to wait and see if dell circles the wagons and comes up with a strategy to turn things around.

this news is a welcome distraction for hp, which has seen many distractions over the last few months. heat over a possibly illegal internal investigation, the resignation of a chairman, and the centralization of the chairman role with the company's ceo had to be a few speed bumps for the company this year. the great news may mark a turn for the company to re-focus on running its business.

user comments 9 comment(s)

sounds about right(9:33am est fri oct 20 2006)i purchase all the it equipment in my organization, dell has has down as far as quality is concerned. dell desktop and notebooks are not very unique and don't offer any additional productivity tools that ibm/lenovo and hp offer. tools like thinkvantage and hp protecttools are options that distinguish these brands.

dell needs to get on the ball and develop something it can compete with. their machines are less expensive yet basic and straightforward, this has helped them in the past but it does not cut it anymore. – by alejandro

yay(11:03am est fri oct 20 2006)i never liked the way dell pandered to some sections of the market, then pretended like they could upply anything. they have made strides in alleviating that recently.

what went wrong? the batteries might have had something to do with it. – by wjciv

dell doesn't develop(11:04am est fri oct 20 2006)dell does not do a lot of r&d for features. they watch what others do in the market place, and then try to find a way to do it cheaper. they're always the last to come out with new technology, and sometimes it takes them 2 iterations to get it right. with some it budgets beginning to pick up, departments can look for features again, instead of the cheapest box. it is then that dell will begin to have problems. – by koreberg

dell support(1:57pm est fri oct 20 2006)part of the drop may be the often-discussed problems consumers have with dell's (non-business) support being moved to india. people tend to change their minds about buying a dell when a coworker (or two or three or a dozen) chime in with horror stories about spending long minutes trying to communicate basic issues with someone who doesn't speak the same language.

– let me take time out to make a point. i have no doubts that most of the dell reps in india are techincally competent to do the job. it's the language barrier that's a problem and is frustrating to most people. if consumers in india had to talk to american's for support, i'm sure they'd have the same complaints. –

dell also has gotten a well-deserved reputation for using the cheapest components they can find, not necessarily the best ones. as the pc market in the deveoped nations becomes saturated, most consumers are discovering that “you get what you pay for” applies to pcs just like it does to anything else.

that, or the drop is because they aren't running the “dell dude” commercials anymore… – by jarink

where are the amd fanboys?(10:04pm est fri oct 20 2006)wasn't dell's embracing of amd for desktop and servers going to save their bacon? i guess all them amd huggers like rick unbiased geek didn't run out and by a dell dude!

dell's go go days are over just like amd's.

for dell it is simply their business model doesn't offer a compelling value or advantage over their competition. what is worst is they have no history or culture of innovation / r&d nor do they have any in customer service.

bottom line dell desktops are crap, their laptop are worst. now they power their value line with amd what is more laughable then that…

its no wonder they are stuck in no growth and the stock is going nowhere… – by sillyrickgeek

hmmm(6:15pm est sun oct 22 2006)don't forget though, jrink (is that the jrink of old? :) ), hp also have alot of their call/support centres in india, and it is just as frustrating to get them to do stuff.

i think a good thing that people have recognised is that build quality on alot of hp hardware is very good/excellent. our it team all have hp's, and not one of them has failed in 2 years of operation, and only one needed reimaging back to soe.

we have alot of p3 hp's around, that just never fail. on the other hand, we have alot of acer 3700gx's that fail alot.

dell and hp are pretty damn close though, in terms of market share.

in the end, everyones a winner for lower prices :)

– by headley

i have 2 grand, which do i buy? …(9:16pm est sun oct 22 2006)

hey smarty pant's –on topic then since just today…

i have 2 grand, which company's laptop do i buy? i'm buying a new laptop this week.

i've already had a dell laptop for 3 years that is still strong, but outdated. so i'm adding another laptop to a wireless-home 'network'.

on topic: should i buy a dell or hp? i ask you. you to please make the call! specific model numbers appreciated.

thank yew.

:^d weeeeeeeeeeeeee

– by registration_sucks

re: which do i buy?(11:01pm est sun oct 22 2006)i have an hp dv8233cl, dual core processor, 17.0” wxga+ high-definition, gig of ram, 128mb discrete and 128mb share video. dual hard drives… 100 gb x2 hard drives totaling 200gb… dvd burner, wide screen. i am a webmaster and i use dreamweaver, photoshop cs, putty, ftp, wmp, javadevelopment software all at once and it runs it smoothly. i can go from one application to the next using alt+tab with no delay. i really love this machine. on the weekends i use it to play counterstrike source and it runs it fine. it only costs $1,800… at the office i plug it into a 32″ wide screen sony and it looks magnificent. i give it 10 stars. (the picture on the hp website is wrong, it has a full keyboard including touchpad) – by defcon1

funniest part of searching both the dell and hp websites for a laptop: for all their 'high-tech' bragging, you'd think they'd have websites that work well. bad/missing links, poor javascript writing, out dated info. i think i'd rate them about the same for lousy surfing.